Despite ending its regular season with two shutout losses in the Louisville Thanksgiving… Despite ending its regular season with two shutout losses in the Louisville Thanksgiving Tournament, the Pitt volleyball team returned home with a reason to smile. On Sunday evening, the Panthers earned their second consecutive trip to the NCAA tournament by capturing an at-large bid.

Tennessee 3, Pitt 0M

Friday evening, Pitt faced the No. 10-ranked Volunteers in its first match of the Louisville Tournament. The Panthers dropped three straight games to Tennessee with scores of 30-23, 30-25 and 30-25. This victory moved Tennessee’s record to 30-2 for the season, while the Panthers moved to 21-9 overall.

Out-hitting the Panthers, Tennessee earned a .312 average, while Pitt struggled with a meager .139 average. Service errors once again haunted Pitt, as they finished with seven on the day.

Leading the way for the Panthers, junior Gini Ullery had a match-high 16 kills, but the forceful Volunteers racked up 70 digs during the match, compared to the Panthers’ 46. Libero Megan McGrane, who has consistently stepped up defensively for Pitt, earned 16 of those 46 digs herself.

Panther setter Azadeh Boroumand contributed all of the team’s 43 assists during the match. She also finished with five digs on the day. Senior outside hitter Melissa Whaley racked up nine kills, nine digs and a team-best four blocks in Pitt’s loss.

Louisville 3, Pitt 0

For the second time in just two short days, the Panthers faced another ranked team. No. 20 Louisville, like Tennessee, came into its game against Pitt with just two regular-season losses.

In their last regular-season game on Saturday afternoon, the Panthers dropped another 3-0 match to the Cardinals with scores of 30-22, 30-24 and 30-25. Pitt finished the regular season with a record of 21-10, while Louisville improved to 28-2. With this victory, the Cardinals captured their 20th consecutive match win and 58th consecutive game win.

“Both these opponents are just very good teams,” head coach Chris Beerman said of the two weekend matches.

For the second day in a row, Ullery racked up 16 kills, and also added eight digs for the Panthers. Boroumand contributed heavily in the assists category once again, earning 37 assists. Boroumand also earned a .600 hitting percentage with six kills.

Freshman Diana Andreyko, who had earned just seven kills the day before against Tennessee, came out strong against Louisville and knocked down 13 kills for Pitt. Andreyko also contributed defensively for the Panthers, ending with six digs.

Finishing the season with 21 victories and coming in second in the Big East standings, as well as finishing second in the Big East tournament, Pitt earned an at-large bid and will travel to Columbus, Ohio, on Dec. 3 to face the Mid-Atlantic Conference champions, the Ohio Bobcats. Ohio finished its season with a strong 28-2 record.

“Ohio dominated in the [Mid-Atlantic Conference] this year,” Beerman said about the Bobcats. “They are a physical and fast team that is well coached, but we’re ready to come back full strength this weekend.”

The upcoming match between the Panthers and the Bobcats will be the sixth meeting in the schools’ histories. Pitt has won the last three meetings with Ohio and leads the series 3-2, but the teams haven’t faced each other since October 1984. The Bobcats, going into Friday’s match with Pitt, have won 22 consecutive matches.

With this bid, the Panthers will make their fist back-to-back NCAA tournament appearance since earning five straight berths from 1990 to ’94. Currently, Pitt is 3-10 in NCAA tournament matches, but has captured first-round victories in its last two appearances — 1994 and 2003. Like Pitt, this NCAA appearance will be Ohio’s second showing in two years.

The Pitt-Ohio match will be held at Ohio State University, where the host Buckeyes (27-3) will face Dayton University (23-8). The winners of the two matches Friday will face each other in the second round of the tournament at Ohio State on Saturday, Dec. 4. Times for the matches are scheduled to be released soon.